Aide confirms Rosenstein and Paul Ryan met about Russia investigation

There is reportedly an “intense feud” between House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and the DOJ.

A GOP aide has confirmed, reports The Hill, that “Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray met with Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday about the House Russia investigation.”

The Speaker was reportedly “escorted by his security detail” and walked past “a number of reporters who were staking out budget negotiations between top White House officials and top congressional leaders.” According to the aide, the meeting which was held in the Speaker’s office, “came at the request of Rosenstein and Wray.”

Although no other information about the meeting is known, including its focus, the meeting itself “comes amid an intense feud between House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and the Department of Justice (DOJ),” reports The Hill. Nunes has reportedly been lashing out at the DOJ for months over what he calls “a deliberate failure to respond to requests for information on the so-called 'Steele dossier.'”

According to The Hill, the House Intelligence Committee Chairman also reportedly penned a letter to the Deputy Attorney General just last week in which he labelled the “department’s initial response as “disingenuous at best,” and claimed that things had reached a point where “the DOJ and FBI need to be investigating themselves.” The deadline on Nunes’ latest request was reportedly also on Wednesday.

It was late on Wednesday night, reports The Hill, “after a conversation between Nunes and Rosenstein,” that the DOJ agreed to provide the Intelligence Committee with access to the controversial dossier. The “unverified opposition research document into then-candidate Trump […] alleges a constellation of contacts with Russia during the campaign,” says The Hill, and “has become a flashpoint in the various investigations into Moscow’s attempt to swing the 2016 election.”